


Crystalline

by RavenZaphara



Series: Songs About Strings [2]
Category: Undertail - Fandom
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Both Opaline and Reader are non-gendered, Casual Sex, Character Death Mentioned, Crystalline by Circrush featuring Gumi, For all of you guys who've been patiently waiting for me to return to the fic, I'm on my way to i swear to jeebus, Oneshot, Other, Porn With Plot, Prequel to You Are Untitled, Tentacle Dick, also i added a few little tidbits to show his journey toward rock bottom, drug use is implied, funny sex, the song is either about crystal meth or about a toxic relationship, ultimately leading up to the very beginning of You Are Untitled., what better way to encapture what this story is about? lmao, yes this song is named after a song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 02:14:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14945705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenZaphara/pseuds/RavenZaphara
Summary: Strings had lost so much already. His friends, his home, and now he was just barely getting by. He had no way of knowing that one day he'd find peace and joy again. He certainly wouldn't know those things in the meantime, after meeting the lover he'd eventually dub "Opaline."This was before he got worse, going so far as to help Opaline get their fix. This was when Gentem’s death was still fresh, when Gixie had just moved away. This is when he gave up on living happily and just floated downstream for a while.It was the perfect setup for him to eventually hit rock bottom. This is before he wrote about his alcoholism. This was before he decided to fight back. This was, most importantly, before he gained a very special fan who would one day reach out.This Was Opaline.





	Crystalline

**Author's Note:**

> Title is based off a song (as usual from my fics tbh) and I've embedded the song at the head of the story so that way you can listen to it while you read for some feeling. 
> 
> If you're curious what Strings plays on his radio when he's fucking, it's stuff like Static-X, Mudvayne, maybe some very sparse Marilyn Manson. This was also years ago, so needless to say he's got more on that playlist in recent times. 
> 
> Content warning for: Drug references, Alcohol and alcoholism references, domestic disputes over drug abuse, allusion to suicide, and sexual content. If any of that is a hard no for you, please take care of yourself and back out. This story is non-essential to enjoyment of You Are Untitled or The Perfect Gentleman (or Hard Cider, Soft Cider once I post it...)

 

He had to afford the alcohol somehow.

He wanted a shitty manual labor job that paid enough to spot him some beer and maybe rent. That’s how he ended up at the factory where it was always cold and dusty and no one wore the protective masks. He was the first monster there-- because he’d illustrated clearly his powers and he was willing to guess he was being paid less than humans.

Fuck but he hated working sober, but he couldn’t afford to lose this job. Much as he just didn’t want to live, he didn’t want to die homeless. He didn’t want to beg Gixie, Grillby, Fennel or Nica for help. They wouldn’t help him anymore, he was sure.

He had to enable himself now since no one else would.

In the haze of days mixing with each other, he almost didn’t notice them. Almost. He was used to being stared at, but this was a different thing. He’d seen that look before, and it never meant anything nice. It meant nasty shit, but to be honest he didn’t really care. At least he knew where he stood with them. Didn’t even see him as enough of a person to not oogle. _Someone_ had a fetish.

Considering he was self-destructive on top of everything else, he didn’t mind. It almost felt like justification. Humans would always see monsters through violent tendencies or a creepy fetish. And since he, himself, didn’t feel worthy of kindness at this point, it was the perfect catalyst for a horrible decision.

Honestly, he never asked their name, and they didn’t think to give it. He invited them home with him after work and they seemed hesitant. He figured it was because he was a monster with monster powers and monster germs. He was about to tell them to forget it, but they agreed.

He didn’t use a vehicle, since he could just teleport wherever the fuck he wanted, and so broaching the topic of teleporting with them was necessary. As exciting as it was, they said they felt more comfortable taking their car. He hated being a passenger, but whatever.

The ride to his place was uneventful and tense. He honestly had no idea what he should be doing to butter them up. With monsters, there was a common ground. He and Gixie had music in common, and magic. And many other things.

Yeah, and look where that led him. She had written a song begging him to get better and come back to her, and he wrote one about fucking her like a slut and saying he was tired of her. She had moved out of Topside after that. Yet another reason to hate himself. Even if she was pressuring him to stop feeling sorry for himself, he shouldn’t have done that to her.

He didn’t even want to think of how pissed Fennel was, and Grillby refused to serve him. That’s why he’d moved further out, to the edge of Topside, where he was closer to all these shitty human-run factories.

With his thoughts turning continually more sour, he hadn’t noticed they had started talking. “What?” He said.

“I said… will it be difficult to get into Topside? Don’t you need permits for that?”

“You’re with me. I’ll vouch for you at the border, they write down your name, take a copy of your license, and put that I vouched for you. You’re free to come in to visit as long as you leave within two days.” He sighed. “Course, if they don’t see you go in, that’s entirely different. That’s why I offered to just skip that shit. It’s quicker, and less paperwork and governmental bullshit. Humans kill us whether we record their presence or not. Who cares. We’re all gonna die.”

Man, he was really setting the mood, wasn’t he? If it was awkward before, now it was stiflingly so.

After getting through the border checkpoint, things were a little easier. The tension eased as they gawked at everything and everyone. Almost wrecked once, too. Strings hated being a passenger; if he was going to die, he’d like to choose the moment and he sure as fuck didn’t want it to be four blocks from the Airship in the passenger seat of his prospective booty call’s car.

He had never been happier to see the slums he lived in. As far as slums go, it wasn’t too bad. It was just cheap and the landlord didn’t care what went on. Surprise surprise, the landlord was human. Was a real dickhead. At this point he figured all humans were like that, some were just more honest than others.

Honesty. They looked a bit put-off. Yeah, the common misconception was that all monsters were stacked because their currency was gold. This person was easier to read than a fucking book.

“Sorry, I’m in between mansions currently, sweetheart.” He grumbled, and got out of the car. “You coming?” He didn’t turn to see, but grinned when he heard them get out of the car. “I’ll give you the tour, c’mon.”

The tour was short but he had something much longer in mind for them. Making sure they knew where the bathroom was was a good idea though. Humans needed those. Also, he had some shit in the fridge they might eat. Never knew with picky humans.

Why was he even doing this?

“How ‘bout a shower?” He offered. Good way to make sure they were clean before he did anything. The factory wasn’t the cleanest place, after all. He eyed them, noticed the way they looked at him as if eager to see what he looked like without clothes. Classic fetishization. “I’ll even help you get clean.” He taunted, ushering them into the relatively cramped bathroom.

Despite his desires, he’d have to make the shower fast; his water heater wouldn’t allow luxurious shower sex. Just enough to get them clean and hot. Good ole foreplay.

He pressed them against the wall and kissed them. They moaned into his mouth and gripped onto two of his ribs through the shirt, bunching it between his bones. The sensation of the coarse cotton in a sensitive area made his teeth hurt but he ignored it and summoned hands to undress them while he continued to nearly maul their face. They gave as good as they got.

He threw them in the shower before the water could fully heat up, stripped off hurriedly and joined them, and then he put his hands all over them. They followed suit, leaning forward to lick and suck at his bones. That was kinda weird but it didn’t feel terrible so he let it slide. He summoned his phantom limb in the form of a tentacle, and heard them gasp. They knelt down in front of him and took it into their mouth hungrily, the water pelting down on them effectively waterboarding them.

They didn’t seem to mind and he sure as fuck wasn’t going to stop them. His hands found an interesting game to play with their body, tweaking nipples, fingering holes. At last he decided they were both clean enough and turned the water off. Didn’t even towel off or anything, just grabbed them by the hair and warped into his bedroom, letting them fall from his hand onto the bed, still soaking wet.

He used a spectral hand to smack his radio as he climbed onto them. “Oh, _fuck_ , yes.” They moaned.

He actually couldn’t help but laugh at that. “That’s the idea, sweetheart.”

“Please put that inside me.” They begged shamelessly. Either they were really aroused by this or he was really good at seducing humans. He chose the latter, for his ego.

“Working on it.” He grumbled, kneeling between their legs and hiking them up, using spectral hands. He thrust in in one go, causing them to literally scream and clench up on him. Tighter than he’d expected with how eager they’d been, but fuck that was not a problem.

They pulled a pillow over their face to stifle their noises, but he knocked it away and pinned their knees down, thrusting in violently, actually enjoying their passionate cries as he sneered down at them.

“I’m gonna cum!” They yelled into his face.

"Already? Damn. Guess you’re in for a ride, then.” He muttered, and kept going. He was literally nowhere near done.

He’d thought they were loud before. Holy shit, he was glad he didn’t have eardrums. If this ever happened again, he’d need to invest in a gag or something. Maybe the pillow would have been a good idea, but with the current position, it would have smothered them to death. That would be bad.

He kept on, even still, and they eventually-- thankfully-- went hoarse. They still tried to scream that they were cumming again but he just laughed because he was still nowhere close to being done. In fact…

He was feeling lazy, so he used his magic to restrain them in air, face down. They squeaked, but then he was inside them again, and with the magic he was able to even more rapidly and roughly fuck them. As he got closer, he started growling, and that seemed to turn them on even more. Common courtesy, he warned them before he was about to cum, and they did their best to scream yet again.

With how tired he was afterward, it was hard to feel shame. He sighed and collapsed on the bed, letting them down as gently as he could. They, too, were having trouble catching their breath. “There’s beer in the fridge. Want one?”

Their voice sounded sexier all husky like it was now. “A beer sounds nice.”

He chuckled darkly. “We should do this more often then.” He said, and pulled them up to him. A phantom hand brought a case of beer by the plastic rings. He cracked one and handed it to them, then took one for himself.

“We totally should.” They said, settling closer to him.

 

* * *

 

“I wanna suck your dick while you play the guitar.” They said.

“I’m not gonna argue with you.” He chuckled.

“Take your fucking pants off then.”

“We’re not even in the house yet, hold your fuckin frogs.”

“Frogs?”

“Frogs.”

“Why frogs? It’s horses.”

“Because it isn’t where I come from.”

They were quiet for a moment. “Okay, yeah, but why frogs?”

“Why horses?”

They shut up.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, buy me a pack of beer on your way over here, and I’ll get you something special. Bonus points if you get me something harder.”

“Whatcha got for me that’s hard?”

“Mmm, I’ll show you when you get here.”

“Drugs or dick?”

“Both is good.”

“I think I love you. Both is _sooo_ good. We should get married.”

“Let’s not.”

“It’s just the drugs talking.”

“I know. Let’s not.”

 

* * *

 

“I can’t take this anymore! Okay? You’re like… a fucking… medical prop! Trying to tell me how to live my fucking life! Okay? Okay. So like. Fuck off. If you wanna get clean, you can do it without me! Just. Just go, okay? Before I start crying again.”

He didn’t want to leave them like that. They were going to kill themself at this rate. It wasn’t about saving himself, they deserved that too.

But just like they couldn’t take it anymore, neither could he. He’d gotten a new job at a construction place, and he’d heard about this nifty little site online where you could post your music and make money on the side if people like it. He had a rental house picked out, and the owner was taking a big chance letting him move in, letting him slide on the deposit until he started getting paid.

He couldn’t do this anymore. In a sense, it felt like he’d woken up. He didn’t even want to think of how ashamed Gentem would be if he had seen him in that situation. He wanted to make Gentem proud. No… He wanted to make _himself_ proud.

He didn’t want to want to die anymore. He wanted to recover. And music and work as his outlet, he’d stay away from alcohol now.

First he needed to reupload all those old songs he made to his new account. Maybe he could get in touch with Gixie, get her permission for those songs? No… they were just as much his songs as hers, and he couldn’t bear the thought of talking to her right now. He was still so ashamed.

He ended up messaging her anyway. Told her he was trying to get better. He said sorry for all the things he did and said, for the song he wrote. That she’d deserved better than him, but if she ever needed a friend, he was there.

She never answered.

 

* * *

 

He stayed away from the Airship, even though he had no beef with Muffet and he’d mended the fence with Fennel and Alison. Nica tried to tell him something but he ignored it, like he always did. Usually her tidings fucked with his anxiety, but telling her so would just be mean.

He stayed far away from Grillby’s, for a few reasons. One being that he’d always been attracted to Grillby and he really didn’t want to rebound on him since he was such a good guy-- the other being because he wasn’t sure he could handle being back in the bar around all that liquor.

He frequented the little club down the strip, with its boisterous music and its Ambrosia-addled patrons. Ambrosia’s most common side effect was heightened sensations and libido. It wasn’t so much a drug as a quality of the magic in the food they served. In any case, it made him not feel as numb, and it meant he came home with someone every now and then.

Even so, he still felt numb. He threw himself into his work, but it still wasn’t enough.

 

* * *

 

The message lit up his phone while he was on break. He considered not reading it, but decided “What the fuck, why not?” If it was something inappropriate, he had moderation on. He could delete it before anyone else saw it.

**You** **posted:**

_As always, your voice is gorgeous and your lyrics are haunting and heartfelt… but I’m worried about you. I’ve been a fan of yours for a few years now, enjoyed your music, and I know a lot of it is written from a place of pain. None more so apparent than this. I’m not going to say I know what you’re feeling, but please, if you’re considering anything permanent, please message me first, anytime. I’ll respond as soon as I see it. Just hold on that long. You’re worth so much more than you realize._

They’d posted their username for a chat service he’d had installed but hadn’t had the need to use since he had no friends online anymore. He sat and thought of just deleting the message anyway, but held off.

He couldn’t stop thinking about it when he got home. He’d been considering how he’d do it for a while, but now he was totally preoccupied by that message. He realized he was more willing to cling to life than he knew.

He messaged them back that night.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey if you enjoyed this, please consider looking at some of my other works or hitting me up on [here](https://ko-fi.com/ravenzaiyo) or [here](https://zaiyofalls.tumblr.com/)


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